By John Seiler

Silicon Valley scored the top spot on the Milken Institute’s “Best-Performing Cites 2012″ list, which looked at 200 metro areas.

That’s a great accomplishment. But what about the rest of California? You have to drop way down to No. 19 for the next California city on the list, Bakersfield-Delano; then down to No. 36 for San Francisco; then No. 66 for Santa Barbara; then San Diego at No. 73.

Los Angeles-Long Beach is way back at No. 95, near Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine at No. 97.

And the Golden State’s cities bring up the rear: Modesto No. 199, Stockton No. 189, Sacramento No. 182. They’re down there with Detroit’s No. 190.

Here’s the full Top 10:

1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
2. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos TX
3. Raleigh-Cary NC
4. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown TX
5. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria DC-VA-MD-WV
6. Salt Lake City, UT
7. Provo-Orem UT
8. Cambridge-Newton-Framingham MA
9. Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville SC
10. Fort Worth-Arlington TX

Again, it’s great that Silicon Valley is on top. But note that Texas has three in the top 10 and Utah has two. Low taxes and a friendly business climate matter.

Massachusetts has one area, Boston; but “Taxachusetts” actually has fairly low taxes.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria means the gigantic government complex known as the U.S. government. It’s been growing as a parasite, sucking the life blood out of the rest of us. That will end soon when the federal government goes bankrupt.

To round out the list, business-friendly North Carolina and South Carolina make the Top 10.

Of the Top 10, five are in the South, which likes business; three in the West; one in the North, Massachusetts; and one is the vortex of tax slavery, D.C.

For California, this is great news if you’re a digital nerd with a 180 IQ. Otherwise, not so good news.